Fgs I've just agreed to Guinea pigs.

[pastypirate]

I have said yes to fostering 2 boy piggies from a family friend who is rehoming. I have told the dds it's a trial period. Then I told dp who just agreed to keep them and didn't overthink it. Sigh.

What do I need to know? We already have very delicate rex rabbits so I'm well used to high maintenance floofs.

They are going to live indoors in dd2 room for now and see how we get on. I am so excited for the meeping!

The dds have a pet care chart they have to complete so I guess I will make another one. Dds are 11/14 so pretty helpful.

@HeBeaverandSheBeaver I have got one that can bite. She gave me a good nip on the finger at the weekend. She will bite on anything, if it's in front of her face then it's fair game. She bites the correx base, the haykeeper, my DD hair if she gets a chance.

Do not use wood shavings, it can give them respiratory issues.

Get a c and c cage - google it - or buy a set up from Kavee cage. Line with disposable incontinence bed pads (Amazon)- it won’t hurt them if they eat them, honestly. Or puppy pads. Then add hay. Much easier to clean out that way and less smell. I’ve been keeping and rescuing piggies for 20 years now.

GPigs are fab and much lower maintenance than rabbits. You sound like a very responsible owner and your dd's are a nice age, I'm sure you'll all enjoy them!
Just place marking for the photos 😍

That's useful to know - I already have pet nail clippers for the existing floofs so I can handle that.

If you already have rabbits, guinea pigs will be a doddle. I love mine and find them really easy to care for (but I'm a big animal lover/ex vet nurse anyway!)

We have indoor piggies and have used both fleece bedding and aubiose/hay bedding. We found the fleece much more labour intensive and the endless rounds of washing was a bit of a pain. After a couple of years we switched to aubiose bedding, covered by hay. It's messier and more expensive, but we only clean out once a week, spot cleaning other bits if necessary. Takes less than 30 mins to empty out hutch and re-fill with bedding/hay. As you keep on top of things, there's no noticable difference in smell between fleece or aubiose. For floor time, we covered a king size waterproof mattress protector with fleece so they have more space to run around, and ours probably spend a couple of days a week just living on that (we made an enclosure for it from thin mdf and shoelaces for when we leave them on it unattended). Piggies are great! You are in for some lovely times.

Guinea pigs are incredibly easy pets, very very placid and happy to just sit on your lap and eat (and poo!). They are essentially eating and pooing machines. We take ours (also two boys) to the vets semi regularly to have their nails trimmed as they don't really move much to grind them down, and one boy has long hair that can get matted a bit so we keep that trimmed (especially around the back end - see above re pooing 😅).

The only pain in the arse I would say is keeping their cage clean - they are messy eaters, poo and wee a lot (did I mention that already?!) and their wood shavings and hay can get quite smelly if not cleaned out regularly. I would stick to having this as a trial and telling your girls they are responsible for keeping them clean. Their cage should be properly cleaned out including with disinfectant spray - you can get pet friendly stuff from Pets at Home or any pet shop - at least a couple of times a week.

Re food, they should mostly be eating Timothy hay. Then always have some nuggets and give them plenty of fresh veg and occasional fruit as well. Not too much veg or fruit though - they tend to self regulate a lot better with hay and nuggets whereas with fruit and veg they will gorge themselves. We were told ours were both overweight at the first vet appointment we took them to (the shame!) so we've cut back, especially on fruit. Unfortunately ours still associate the sound of the fridge door opening with getting some cucumber or whatever and will squeal loudly in protest if we come back on empty handed!

Overall they're lovely, low maintenance, cuddly pets. I've had various small pets (rats, rabbits, gerbils and degus) and piggies are my personal favourite. Enjoy!

That's really helpful and seems similar to the rabbits. We got ticked off by the vet my girl was too fat and they went on a strict diet - their fussy eating stopped almost overnight!

We have piggies! They also don't smell but same as above they are cleaned daily and tend to wee in the large hay boxes we leave out. We can get away with just changing the hay boxes daily if in a rush.

They are just happy potatoes and the noises they make are fab. Also Google 'popcorning
Guinea pigs' mine do this when they are happy (mostly when more hay and food is coming!) so sweet

If you want to go down a rabbit hole (no pun intended) this is a helpful and friendly forum, as long as your cage is big enough ;-)

https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/

My two boars are fairly smelly despite regular cleaning and spot-cleaning out of poops. Straight after a full clean they like to scent the area…I try to cover it with fresh hay smell when possible.

Best advice I got if they will be kept anywhere near carpet or a rug is buy a rubber sweeping brush. The hay gets everywhere!

If you can, I would set up something for them outdoors. We had a portable cage - basically chicken wire and wood, with a sheet of plywood as a roof and no floor. We had clips to ensure the roof stayed put. You said your dh enjoys DIY so would be really easy to make. We also had a three sided wooden box on its side in the cage to serve as shelter.

We used to put them out for a couple of hours whenever it was dry (they don't like damp). They're fine with the cold so long as it's not too extreme. They loved it. They would start chirping in excitement whenever they saw the box/shelter which we used to carry them out in. Their favourite food was dandelions.

One of the dogs used to guard the cage whenever they were outside. It was so cute.

Never skimp on hay. They need to eat lots.
Mine also adored dandelions and grass - outside time is great if you can manage it.
Other big hits for treats was those tubs of living herbs (parsley especially) and feed nuggets to avoid them missing essential nutrients. I also used to get GP muesli and scatter it so they could forage for the bits they liked.
I don't have them anymore but this thread is making me a bit nostalgic for them!

As promised the little furry bastards have arrived. Dd2 is in love. Just to balance things out the rabbits have had a fight and been separated again. Ffs.

Rabbits had a fight with eachother not the piggie. Piggies are bonded it would appear.

They can't make their own vitamin C so need a good source of this - best thing is to feed green bell pepper every day (they can have red/orange etc once a week as higher in sugar, but green is fine daily). Then other veg / herbs - mine get courgette, coriander, parsley or mint daily, plus a little of whatever (pig-safe) veg we are having.
They only need a tablespoon of pellets each - science selective is very good, or Burgess excel.

They came with burgess excel kibble. I'm freaked out alexa told me cabbage is poisonous as the rabbits eat it a lot.

What else should I be avoiding?

Beautiful pigs OP!!

They might be too loud for a bedroom though? Depends how well your DD sleeps.

They mustn't eat iceberg lettuce.

Ours don’t smell. Pigs are the best pets ever!

Can I ask if they can be kept with cats? My DS would love them but I’m not sure about the hassle of keeping the three cats away especially as my kids are young and don’t close doors etc. 😬 sorry to hijack!

🤣🤣

Next door's cat was very interested in ours when they were in the garden. Luckily our dog wouldn't let him near them...

How old are they? Boys do often fight when they reach maturity even if they are brothers and always been together.

Another issue with boys, as they age they can lose the muscles around their bum causing their poo not to expel. You then have to manually extract it as it gets a bit like a ping pong ball. Now that stinks!!

Wonderful pets. Never smelled when I had them

They do! And they also vibrate when they are happy 😁.

My guinea pigs get the cores and outer leaves of savoy cabbage all the time! It’s not their favourite veg but they do eat it.

Cucumber and parsley are favourites here.

Love the pics 😍 the piggie in the 2nd photo looks like a sloth. I think you should call him Sloth!

They are 2 years old apparently. I was thinking they must have had their first spring? I'm told they play fight but it doesn't get violent. Having been through this with my psycho rabbit they will be split and neutered if they get aggy.